Honore de Balzac

BALZAC--Rene Benjamin--Knopf ($5). Fiction could be, has been defined as imaginary biography. Biography in its latest form could be defined as imaginary fiction. Into this definition fits the work of Andre Maurois, of his followers like Author Benjamin. They believe in making truth seem real by giving it the guise of fiction. Holding to an authentic outline, their method is to present what did happen as what might have happened, as part of the story.

Balzac was a cross between a babbitt and a stroke of lightning. Above his pudgy face, lighted by a bulbous nose, his brain was a melting pot for furious fancies. It fumed with a thousand energetic inspirations which varied from running a printing press to writing the Comedie Humaine. Everything he did was characterized by a gigantic and exaggerated gusto. At dinner with George Sand "three bottles had been emptied. He pointed to them: 'We are not drinking!' After they had consumed six dozen oysters, he pointed to the shells: 'What's wrong with you all tonight? Does nobody feel hungry?'

"Careening through life with the impetus of a cannon ball, Balzac dashed into love affairs at every turn. His first two mistresses were twice his age. People of all sorts, from grocery clerks to emperors, fired his imagination to write about them. In the meantime, he loved carriages, good wine, sleek clothes, expensive food. He ran up debts of 150,000 francs and trying to extricate himself by scatter-brained schemes, increased them. His economic principle was that spending more money means the necessity for earning more money, and as his only sure way of earning more money was to write more books, this principle accounts for the existence of many a Balzac masterpiece.

Author Benjamin, describing prodigious doings, allows himself to become infected with the superb extravagance of his subject. He rhapsodizes too readily, too insistently points the salient qualities, too rarely sees the subtleties fused in the character of Honore de Balzac. Mediocre translation has not improved the book which is, all in all, a cage too small for its canary.

Jealous Zealot

THE HOLY LOVER--Marie Conway Oemler-Boni & Liveright ($2). With religious excitement curdling his "mind, John Wesley came to Georgia. There he fell in love with 15-year-old Sophy Hopkey, made the saving of her soul his excuse for a prolonged and unculminated courtship. When she, tired of his reluctance to propose, married William Williamson, John Wesley flew into a silly and destructive rage. Not content to relinquish his inamorata, he pursued her with persecutions, driving her away from Holy Communion, questioning the legality of her marriage. At last, after she miscarried a child, her husband sued the man of God. Before the case was tried he left the colonies, returned to England with the Word of God, to found Methodism.

Author Oemler estimates the subject of her biography at his face value. Writing in the manner of fiction, she draws bold conclusions from his actions, makes no attempt to soften his cruelties on the excuses of religious mania. Yet human beings are more important than idols and the First Methodist is not diminished by stringent treatment. He emerges, a conceivable person, lecherous as well as righteous, prurient as well as pure, jealous of a girl as well as zealous for his God. Author Oemler treats him curtly but with even justice. The serious nature of the book may surprise that portion of the public who associates her in literature only with stories concerning one Slippy McGee.